Now I'm thinking the Tarheel 75A or the 40A-HP would be much better but that might looks like too much antenna for a single K400 mount. Perhaps a support tube from the antenna to the hatchback 16" up from the K400 would stabilize it. Any ideas?

Thanks, I did look at Alan's fine website and poked around the web looking for other ideas. I found one installation method that might work for me without too much trouble. What with air bags, plastic body parts right were I would like to place a bracket, and not wanting to drill many holes where they would be seen makes it a challenge. Using the aluminum plate method from one website and Alan's info on Breedlove ball mounts has directed me to a tentative solution with two visible screws in the vehicle body.

I have narrowed the antenna choice down to the Tarheel 75A mounted with the base at roof level. That puts the top of the lower mast section just low enough to make it in the garage with the whip off.

I have a Little Tarheel II with a 72" whip mounted on a Diamond K400. It hits a tree twice a day when I go out, goes under low height barriers at drive-thrus and it has survived 70-80MPH headwinds with me doing 70MPH into them.

You WILL need to do bonding between the hatchback and the rest of the car.

The Little Tarheel II is actually on the tailgate - there's a 5" or so metal strip going from left to right above the glass. No strengthening. So far it has been on there for 10 months and there has been no warping although I had to bend the little tag on the mount that sticks out slightly to prevent it pushing the mount over to the left as the tailgate sits just very slightly below the edge of the rear quarter panel. It would've been in the middle of the roof except they use some gloop for sound deadening that you can't get off so I couldn't re-enforce it and guarantee a good "ground" connection. On the MK3 Mondeo I had, the previous version, I didn't reinforce the roof and although it didn't bend, if you removed the mount you could see where the clamp underneath had pressed into the roof. Didn't warp the roof at all although I suspect it was thicker.

The 5/8 wave 2m antenna that is on the roof doesn't have any strengthening and again has been on about 10 months.

After having it installed through the roof on the previous car, I'd have preferred to do it the same way again. I use a BetterRF screwdriver/tune controller for my Icom 7000 which is sensitive to common mode and there was a fair bit on it with the K400 install which wasn't there at all on the previous car.

Whilst it seems to work OK and I've had no problem getting to VK on 20m it is always in the back of my mind that it probably isn't working as well as it could do using that method of mounting. Sometimes it just seems harder to make contacts than it used to do in the previous car but as I changed from a Kenwood TS480 as well at the same time I'm not sure how much of that is the poorer TX audio. I used to get people who'd say "wow I can't believe you're mobile" and that seems to have been lacking a bit.

On my Kia Soul there is a stout lip on the side of the hatchback that a K400 could attach to. Everyone seems to do quite well mounting the Little Tarheel II on a K400. I'd like to use the heavier 75A though (5.5 lbs. vs 1.9 lbs.). The 75A lower mast length is the same as the Little Tarheel II but with a larger coil diameter. With the lower mast being mounted below the car roof level it is shielded from direct wind force and the K400 might work.

Another idea is to use a Breedlove Ball mount with a 4-1/2 inch backing plate mounted to the hatchback sheet metal. That is rather "bendy" though and I have to drill five holes in the hatchback.

The Little Tarheel II looks good but the specified power rating isn't high enough for the 200 watts CW I will be running. The 75A is rated for 250 watts while the II is 200 watts PEP and 50 watts in all other modes. On the other hand the II power rating is with the 34" whip and with the 72" whip should be higher (radiation resistance is higher, coil current is lower, and less coil is used which means less loss). So maybe I can get away with 200 watts CW to a Little Tarheel II. Now it comes down to radiation efficiency. How much better is the 75A vs the II?

I'm looking for better 40 meter performance than I am getting with 100 watts to an ATAS-120. While I can work Asia from Utah on 40 meters it could be better. And I would like to give 80 meter mobile CW a try. If not for 80 meters I'd go for a Tarheel 40A-HP rated at 1.5 kW.

On my Kia Soul there is a stout lip on the side of the hatchback that a K400 could attach to.

Ah! I just bought a Kia Soul a month ago. I've had an HF antenna (Hustler system) on the hatchback until this weekend. I wasn't satisfied with the hatch for long-term mounting, though; it's awkward and I was concerned about warping the hatch. It also cost me some antenna length. Since I'm already limited to 8.5' above ground (due to the parking garage where I work), I wasn't pleased having the antenna begin so high off the ground.

On Saturday I made an antenna bracket out of aluminum angle stock and bolted it to the towing eye on the right side of the frame at the rear. It's a tinkertoy arrangement, and it'll need to be replaced with something stronger, but it works quite nicely for now.

I had considered the Scorpion 680S and consider that to have better performance (compared to the Tarheel 75A) on 80 meters, about 1 dB on 40 meters and the same on the high bands. But at 13 lbs that is a lot of antenna to mount. I'll see what I learn mounting the Hamstick on the hatchback and take it from there.

When you install it, use an antenna analyser. Before you start doing any bonding, note the frequency of the resonant point of the antenna (x=0 or as near as it'll go). As you add bonding you should notice it dropping as you improve the RF "ground". Mine dropped around 300kHz from start to finish.

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